The investigation into the stabbing death nearly two years ago of a 14-year-old Glen Burnie girl is in a "holding pattern" until test results come back on a new batch of DNA samples, county police said yesterday.
Lt. Harry Collier, the commander of the crimes against persons section of the county Police Department, said the 35 samples are from new suspects in the Lisa Haenel case. He expects to have laboratory reports in January. The 35 were suspects early in the case, but police did not have the resources to collect the samples until a task force was formed in September.
Lisa's body was found lying face down at the bottom of a ravine near Old Mill High School Jan. 16, 1993, by her mother's boyfriend while he was jogging. She was nude, and her clothes were near her body, but there were no indications that she had been sexually assaulted or that she struggled with her attacker.
Police have speculated that the Glen Burnie girl was killed on her way to school between 6:45 a.m. and 7 a.m. the day before her body was found.
In August, police conducted polymerase chain reaction tests, the same tests now being conducted on the new suspects, on about 15 suspects, but the results failed to provide police with a break in the case.
A month later, Police Chief Robert Russell established a task force of eight of the department's best investigators.
Five task force members are back at their regular assignments, Lieutenant Collier said. The remaining three are awaiting the results of the DNA testing.
The task force was formed "because of the number of leads that had come in since Lisa's death," Lieutenant Collier said. When most of that follow-up work was done, there was no need to keep the unit at full strength, he said.
The task force re-interviewed Lisa's family, friends and associates, which Lieutenant Collier said entailed "tons" of interviews.
During their investigations, task force members were able to solve other cases. For example, police were able to identify two men seen running from a car about the same time Lisa's body was found. The men were suspected of driving a car with stolen license plates, police said.
Although they were not charged because the case was more than a year old, both men provided blood and saliva samples to police and were ruled out as suspects.
It is such twists that convince him the case can be solved, Lieutenant Collier said. His investigators will "run down the leads and cover all the bases," he said.
The public can still help.
"If they [members of the public] have some pre-formed opinion about who committed the murder and have not come forth with any information, I wish they would come forth. We believe there are people out there who have information. They can call me any time," the lieutenant said. "Call even if [you] think the information is not valuable."
Lieutenant Collier's office hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Messages can be left on voice mail: 222-3456.